


Still More Chips off the Stone Gryphon

by rthstewart



Series: The Stone Gryphon [12]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, 3 Sentence Fiction, Canonical Character Death, Multi, The Problem of Susan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-09-30 08:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17220251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart
Summary: Fills from the 2018 3 sentence ficathon; includes some fills that are canon compliant and others that are AU, Everybody Lives, Nobody Dies





	1. Gretna Green, Round 1

For Syrena of the Lake, Chronicles of Narnia, any, odd British idioms took root in Narnia

 

Edmund should have burned the damned _Regalia_ but realized it would have been futile for his mate (now bonded to him by 23 separate ceremonies under Narnian law – 18 of which had had to be performed naked) had committed the whole of the text to memory and prepared a spreadsheet wherein she laboriously kept track of each and every marital ritual, the species it was intended to recognize, the excruciating details necessary for its successful execution, his substantial “honey do list,” the odds laid down for its completion, and her (now considerable) winnings (albeit mostly paid in shiny wire, thread, hair, and pyrite).  
  
“We’re quite conventional when you consider it,” Morgan mused, studying the _Regalia’s_ pictures and marginalia documenting the ritual bondings of Narnia monarchs going back to Frank and Helen that were truly as varied as Narnians themselves –husband to wife, wife to wife, husband to husband, and multiplicities besides – Edmund suggested having Lord Abnur join them in an official capacity as consort to the King just for the pleasure of stoking Morgan’s considerable jealousy.  
  
As Morgan turned the page to the last entry, the last ritual, the very last one they would do, they studied together the picture of two crowned Queens clasping hands over a smith’s anvil and it again nudged Edmund’s memory, “I am certain I have heard of the Gretna Green before; I don’t believe it is unique to Narnia.”

 


	2. Gretna Green, Round 2

Syrena of the Lake, Chronicles of Narnia, any, odd British idioms took root in Narnia

The process of getting married, Miriam realized soon after Edmund formally, actually proposed, was fraught for it, like so many other things was tied up in a complex web of Narnia memory, regret, and, since his death in the train crash and return from Aslan’s Country, dogged commitment to _get it right_ this time and _stick around long enough to finish the job_.

It was complex for her, as well, for there was no family to escort her under the chuppa, there would be no Mitzvah Tantz with her father and grandfather to dance, her mother would not be crowned in the Krenzel, and her parents would not dance the Mizinke; Miriam was, as far as she knew, the only one in her large, extended family to survive Nazi occupation and the death camps.

Finally, tentatively she offered, “I know we aren’t going to try 24 different ceremonies and we will have to keep all our clothes on but we could elope to Gretna Green,” and was relieved when Edmund nodded and even smiled a little, “I would like that, and we won’t have to listen to Peter for an hour.”


	3. Crushing

Sawthefaeriequeen, Narnia, Eustace/Caspian, in denial about having a crush

 1.  Eustace blushes furiously every time he thinks about it, about getting Caspian's second-best sword and he just can't stop thinking about it, it all, especially when they're all sleeping in the hammocks and hears those sounds he knows are Caspian breathing softly and..

He realizes Lucy has been talking to him when her fingers snap in front of his nose and he can feel himself turning an even deeper shade of scarlet under the sunburn because she knows, she knows he knows it and that's not the way it's supposed to be, in England, everyone knows that, it's even illegal and it's a caning offence in school, and he just snaps, "It's wrong, I know that, never mind, leave me alone, I'll get over it."

"Oh, Eustace," Lucy replies with that renowned wisdom of the Valiant Queen, "You feel what you feel, you're Narnian, now, and no, it's not wrong, here or there."

 

2.  If he'd ever read the right sort of books, Eustace would know that when Caspian sees Dawn, the Star's Daughter, it's that silly, fantastical thing called love at first sight, and he's sure he would have never, ever believed it could happen because love is some mixture of chemical interaction, convenience, social necessity and construct, and habit, like Harold and Alberta.

But love at first sight is what it obviously is and he lumbers off to sit on the beach and methodically toss into the sea all those little fantasies he had been spinning, like the spiders in the hold of the _Dawn Treader_ \-- spiders that, before he was un-dragoned, he would have probably tried to dissect or put under a glass and watch them burn in the glare of the sun.

He feels the gentle clap on his back even though he didn't hear anyone approach, which means he's not surprised when it's Edmund who says, "It's rough, I know, and I'm sorry," and Eustace just nods.

3\. A few days after the bedlam of their return, Jill finds Eustace burying his Narnian clothes near the wall that Aslan broke and remade after she, Scrubb and Caspian-who-is-dead-but-not-a-ghost thrashed Them. Though it's dark, she can tell from the snuffling as he taps the dirt down that he's been crying and she thinks she knows why, though she really doesn't understand.

So she does the sensible thing, digs in the pockets of her dressing gown, and puts out her hand, "Peppermint?"


	4. Definitely not a charm of Hummingbirds

Syrena of the Lake, Chronicles of Narnia, any, like a hummingbird in a high wind

 

Buffeted by the rough alpine bora winds rushing down from the northern mountains, the stench of stewing offal assaulted only as he mounted the steps of the Palace; Peter's cry, "It's not my fault!" answered Edmund's first question for the last time Cook had punished them with tripe it was indeed because Peter, laid up from (another) boating accident, had been such an infuriatingly terrible patient, he'd made Cook _cry_ , something that their Porcupine Physician had not thought Minotaurs were capable of.  
  
"Due to the winds, we are currently hosting Malenia, the Humingbird Hen who usually nests in the big hibiscus bush in the garden," Susan explained, with a wrinkle of her nose, "and Cook made the mistake of very kindly offering her some boiled syrup to drink."  
  
Even over the howl of the winds, Edmund could hear Malenaia's tinny, bossy screeching obscenity that could bend steel, "Are you trying to kill me you dumb ox!" and decided that if, by mistake, Melania were injured by a stray swipe of Cook's hoof, he would grant extreme leniency in any subsequent sentencing.


	5. The Cranky Professor

Thewrongkindofpc, Narnia; Peter; growing up into the kind of history professor who takes history Very Personally

From a very funny, very good thread of responses [here](https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/139838.html?thread=4887870#cmt4887870).

 

From their very late arrival to lunch and the very sour expressions on the seconds’ faces, Jones knew what had happened in _England at War and Peace in the Late Middle Ages_ , confirmed when Higgins threw her bag on the floor, sank to the bench, and buried her head in her arms.   
  
“Was it the heavy cavalry or the longbows?” he asked when Higgins began gently beating her head on the wooden table; in his experience, the Lancastrian decades of the Hundred Years War were particularly fraught in Professor Pevensie’s lectures.   
  
"The Siege of Rouen," she groaned "which led to a digression about optimal strategic placement of centaurs, which could serve as both heavy cavalry _and_ archers."


	6. Raven to Rat

Syrena of the Lake, Chronicles of Narnia, Sallowpad, spycraft

To Susan, the Raven proposes an extraordinary ploy -- that they plant Talking Mice, Rats, and Birds in foreign courts to spread rumors, sow uncertainty, foment dissent, and spread gossip and lies of Narnia's invincibility and magical protections; such spies could circulate untraceable tales that attacking Narnia is a dark and dangerous enterprise for She is protected by an invincible Lion-god who cast out an enchantress so powerful she commanded the weather and the mighty god's favour now rests upon the prophesied Four who sit on golden thrones.  
  
"Why did you come to me with this, Sallowpad, and not the High King, or King Edmund, or my sister?" Susan asks.  
  
The Raven ruffles his feathers and answers with a harsh croak, "Because, Queen Susan, I believe that you," and Sallowpad pauses so that Susan can fill in the word 'you _alone_ ' "would approve of these measures for the protection of Narnia."


	7. Changing of the Guard

Anonymous, Any, any, guards

 

Caspian was put upon by the Beasts and his advisors even before he was crowned that no decision was more critical in these early days with such lasting, personal and political repercussion than the paramount importance of choosing a Royal Guard – “your very best friend,” Queen Lucy said, “your helpmeet, advisor, and confidante,” Queen Susan had said; once both Queens whispered, _Wolves,_ he thought it had been settled until the High King had said, “Cheetahs, of course, should serve the King of Narnia,” except the Cheetahs declined, rather stuffily too, saying, “We Guard only the _High_ King.”  
  
Caspian had to press before King Edmund reluctantly shared his view,  “It is a very intimate matter, Caspian, to share your every moment with your Royal Guard, and you are right to enter it cautiously for the Guard’s oath will bind you both, until death, in this World and beyond to Aslan’s own Country."

The Just King then paused and what followed might have been jest save for the solemnity with which it was spoken, "As to what Guard, Canine and Feline both served me well, and I loved them both, but, truly, for sheer, vicious ferocity, my recommendation is to consider a Goose.”

 


	8. Losing my religion

Anonymous, any, any, feeling alienated by religion

Harold and Alberta didn’t hold with religion at all and the more Eustace heard about it, the more he thought his parents had the right of it – he was having a really hard time squaring how an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God could allow Hitler and over a million dead Jews in Occupied Europe, if the papers were to be believed – and once Aslan entered the mix, it was even more muddled because the Lion was also supposed to be all the things God was but then had let the Witch kill Caspian’s wife and kidnap and torture Rilian and why had the Lion needed him and Pole to go through all that misery and almost get eaten by Giants because if Aslan was so powerful, he should have just done the job himself.

Since Professor Kirke was supposed to be an expert on God, Eustace had thought he would have all the answers but, instead, the Professor had unhelpfully agreed with him.

“Eustace, I may be a very good theologian but I am a very poor theist and if you cannot reconcile the problem of evil with an all benevolent, omnipotent god, God, or gods, perhaps consider that the fault lies with the deity and not your own understanding.”


	9. Kangaroo-verse

Syrena of the Lake prompted, Narnia, any character, kangaroo mob ([part of the Narnia kangaroo-verse](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/NarniaKangarooverse))

Adaeze [suggested the kangaroos had violin cases and were taking them somewhere](https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/139838.html?thread=5864254#cmt5864254).

* * *

 

"Anansi!" Aslan bellowed from where the gods from above observed their good creations below. "Why have you armed the Kangaroos?"

Anansi waved a hairy leg in denial, "Nay, brother, it was our sister, the Rainbow Serpent, who thought that as you gave them speech, and I gave them legs, little sister wished to gift them arms."

"And the [Aye-aye](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aye-aye_\(Daubentonia_madagascariensis\)_2b.jpg#/media/File:Aye-aye_\(Daubentonia_madagascariensis\)_2b.jpg) and [Pink fairy armadillo](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pink_Fairy_Armadillo_\(Chlamyphorus_truncatus\).jpg) worked out so well the last time we did this," Aslan muttered.


	10. Assuming her mother's mantle

Syrena of the Lake, Narnia, Susan, assuming her mother’s mantle along with her grief

1\. As the funerals go by in a haze of too many details, grief, and empty platitudes about God, Susan is just sensible enough to notice and wonder at what she cannot wholly account for – their widowed neighbor, Mrs. Goodwin, inconsolable in hot, wild, bubbling grief, the odd bohemians leaving poems wrapped around flowers, the philosophy tutor speaking admiringly of her mother (and no mention of her father), ladies from secretarial pools across London, and the prominent editor of a women’s weekly who sends a beautiful wreath, a thoughtful note, shakes her hand, and murmurs sincere condolences that Susan appreciates immensely at the time but cannot remember an hour later. Others vaguely more familiar also come -- Embassy staff from their time in Washington, local tradesmen and women, and incredibly, even Lord Halifax comes to pay his august respects.

It is as she sends the last hollow note of thanks that Susan realizes just how many people, most who she did not know and never met, came to grieve for her mother.

2\. Susan had known, intellectually, that Helen Williams Pevensie was, much like herself, clever, secretive, organized, prepared, meticulous, conversational, brutally practical, and competent; Susan even grudgingly acknowledges that she had learned first from her mother – and not Narnia – the importance of putting on faces (and gloves, lipstick, hair done just so, local customs and conventions always observed, oh yes – Susan’s own black dress, gloves, hat and veil, stockings, handbag and pumps came from her mother’s closet, carefully stored in a box under the plainly inked label _funerals_ ).

However, it is only as she sorts through the detritus of her family’s lives that she finds answers in the things her mother had hidden (and of course she hid them, as Susan herself has done) – the top marks and prizes in philosophy and English, the poetry and stories submitted (and accepted) under pseudonyms to literary magazines, the sage advice columns and thoughtfully penned responses to grieving wives, young mothers with fussy babies, and women trying to make-do with too little (also under pseudonyms and all meticulously filed and cross-referenced on file cards with the recipes and household accounting); and last, at the very bottom of the sewing basket, under mending that would now never be repaired, there are notes to Mrs. Goodwin – _Beatrice_ \-- so exquisitely passionate and explicit, they make Susan herself blush.

Susan weeps, rages, and then what comes after is not acceptance (for she will never accept senseless death) but resolve – she rejects life as the once and always and never again Queen and resolves to create as her mother did, love as her mother did, curate, cultivate and share wisdom as her mother did, but to live the life her mother did not get to live, unapologetically and without the shame.


	11. Wild Dryad Tree Sex

Kalira, Any fandom, any/any, "give it up, some fruits just aren't sexy"

* * *

 

When the monarchs accepted the invitation, Susan had naïvely assumed that the great Dryad Dance celebrating the first true Spring after the Long Winter would have involved their Tree subjects _dancing_ and would _not_ include activities that had Lucy giggling and scampering off to join in (mercifully only the actual dancing), Edmund staring with such unabashed interest Susan could but assume he had located an informative tome in the Library, and Peter blushing so scarlet it wholly undermined his attempt to appear regally ceremonial and imperturbable.

After declining the enthusiastic overtures of a prickly male Holly, and then a stolid, hoary female Oak, and then papery Birch (male and female both), Peter whispered to her in a wincing aside,, “But surely bark would be … uncomfortable?”

“I suppose not if you are another Tree?”


	12. Lady Luck in the Kagaroo-verse

Adaeze prompted, Narnia, any character, "Let Luck be a lady tonight"([part of the Narnia kangaroo-verse](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/NarniaKangarooverse))

 

* * *

1. 

“Why did you invite _him_?” Rainbow Serpent hissed to Aslan as Anansi skittered on all eight legs into the poker parlor.  “Little brother always hides cards in his legs, bets what he doesn’t have and we all end up owing him!”

“Fu-Xing is joining our foursome," Aslan murmured back, “and he owes me a favor.”

 

2.

"This is your fault, Aslan and I should have realized there would be a catch," Rainbow Serpent sighed morosely as she stared at the cards, face down, in front of her.

Anansi's legs were all akimbo, sliding helplessly across the slick playing cards and Aslan was in no better condition as he tried extending a single claw, and succeeded only in snagging and shredding the green felt of the poker table.

Fu-Xing picked up his own hand and studied the four cards, "Is there a problem, Friends?"


End file.
